Industry insights from executives themselves

Internationalising the Toyota Production System (TPS)

Enterprise Excellence

February 11, 2020

When Toyota Material Handling joined forces with European corporation BT Industries, they faced the challenge of creating a seamless merger,... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

December 12, 2019

When the Sensei goes away.

Thousands of businesses in the West strive to replicate Toyota’s culture of operational excellence into their own work culture. The... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

December 04, 2019

In conversation with a former Chief Digital Officer at Bentley

50% of the traditional companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since 2000. One of the reasons so few market-leading... - Read More

Industry 4.0

November 25, 2019

In conversation with Managing Director at Hugo Boss

Joachim has been on the digital transformation journey for over three years now at his Hugo Boss factory in Izmir,... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 18, 2019

GEMBA® by The Leadership Network named finalist for Best use of AR/VR

The Leadership Network (TLN) announced today that their virtual reality learning platform GEMBA® has been named a Finalist for Best... - Read More

Industry 4.0

November 12, 2019

How to integrate Lean management with digital transformation and lessons learned...

Q: How to combine organic Lean with top-down digitalization initiatives? This question comes up very often in discussions in my... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 07, 2019

The Leadership Network® named a finalist for the Learning Provider of the Year

The Leadership Network (TLN) announced today that it has been shortlisted as a finalist for ‘Learning Provider of the Year’... - Read More

Industry 4.0

November 01, 2019

Q&A with Fabrizio: How to reorganise your company to succeed in the digital econ...

Fabrizio Salvador is known around the world as a leading expert in operations management. He is a professor of operations... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

October 16, 2019

How Amazon and Nissan make data science their key strategy

Big data and data science is all over the place from the last decade and the hype and over-swelled hopes... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 10, 2019

Busting Lean Myths with Jeff Liker

Myth 1: Lean is primarily about doing more with less, which means reducing cost. It’s an efficiency programme. Lean is... - Read More

Industry 4.0

October 03, 2019

A 4-step roadmap for creating digitally-enabled organizations

Many managers struggle to see a clear path towards creating digitally -enabled organizations. It is not clear what digitalization investments... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

September 26, 2019

Caterpillar’s Five Proven Steps to Digital Excellence

Everyone will agree by now that digital transformation cannot be treated as just another project or corporate initiative – a... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

September 11, 2019

Agility, Chinese Style

Most Western companies have a functional/hierarchical structure. This was ideal for running a business efficiently in a stable world. Departments are... - Read More

Industry 4.0

September 04, 2019

Q&A with Frank Piller: Skills required of managers and allowing room for experim...

In the second part of the Q&A series, addressing executive challenges on leading the Factory of the Future, Frank Piller... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 27, 2019

Is the iPhone the best project in history?

If you're thinking about launching a strategic project, or are currently doing so, I strongly recommend you follow the same... - Read More

Industry 4.0

August 20, 2019

Q&A with Frank Piller: Driving digital transformation in brownfield sites, worki...

How far should we go in connecting processes and smart technology and what would the return be? For me,... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 14, 2019

How to fail faster – and why you should

We’ve all heard the phrase “fail fast,” especially if we’re familiar with the agile approach. As counter-intuitive as it might... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

August 08, 2019

Q&A with Jeffrey Liker Part II: How to achieve Lean leadership and culture and t...

Q: What is the impact of the new ways of reducing hierarchy to be more agile on Leaders? The idea... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

July 31, 2019

Q&A with Jeffrey Liker: How to get your management on board with Lean

Jeff Liker is a 13 times a Shingo Prize winner for Research Excellence. He is known around the world as... - Read More

Industry 4.0

July 25, 2019

Placing customers at the heart of transformation with Agile

With digitalization allowing companies to accelerate the pace of innovation and making agility a key to achieving a competitive edge,... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

July 18, 2019

How Electrolux Achieved 60% Reduction in Co2 Emissions

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change set the world a clear target: we must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

July 09, 2019

What WIRED's former editor discovered on a global quest for non-BS innovation

I recently wrote a book Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds. The book was born from my frustration... - Read More

Industry 4.0

July 03, 2019

How to Inspire Your Teams to Change When Feedback Doesn’t Work

There are common misconceptions in the workplace around the definition and value of feedback. Feedback is generally focused on finding... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

June 24, 2019

How to apply Lean in Non-Production Functions

This is an introductory article about applying Lean to Non-Production workplaces, including Office work. To aid in understanding I would... - Read More

Industry 4.0

June 13, 2019

Innovation Brief Part 2: Top servitization case studies

In the second part of my ‘innovation brief’, I share insights on next-generation technologies and great digital transformation case studies,... - Read More

Industry 4.0

June 06, 2019

Four case studies on how digitalisation is transforming R&D

In this short video, Frank Piller, an award-winning professor and future manufacturing expert, will share with you four small case... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

May 31, 2019

An insight into the ultimate Lean Tour in Japan with Jeffrey Liker

The Leadership Network, along with 21 global Lean leaders, travelled across 3 cities in Japan to witness the excellent manufacturing... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

May 27, 2019

Innovation Brief by Jim Shaw - Chief Digital Officer at Bentley

Having attended quite a few major events in the digital space, I have managed to accumulate a lot of insights... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

May 20, 2019

Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain Executive’s Scouting Deep Dive

Israel is the Start-Up Nation Silicon Wadi (Wadi means Valley in Arabic) is an area around Tel Aviv on the... - Read More

Industry 4.0

May 08, 2019

Addressing a lack of skill base in your company

In the third and last blog post within the “Tackling your Industry 4.0 challenges” series, Frank Piller, an award-winning professor... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

May 01, 2019

Five Proven Steps for Driving Digital Transformation

Every single industry has a “digital destiny” – an inevitable and unavoidable future that will be shaped by the forces... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

April 24, 2019

What’s Ahead For Supply Chain Executives In 2019?

“It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future” so said Danish physicist Niels Bohr – or was it Yogi Berra or... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

April 16, 2019

Now Unlearn Everything that Made you Successful

A changing basis of competition An organism’s fitness for natural selection determines how successfully it can adapt and thrive in... - Read More

Industry 4.0

April 10, 2019

How Ford optimises design process with VR

Companies such as Ford are leveraging VR as a collaboration tool to enable better and more efficient design processes, helping... - Read More

Industry 4.0

April 03, 2019

Clarify your Industry 4.0 value proposition

In the second blog post within the “Tackling your Industry 4.0 challenges” series, Frank Piller, an award-winning professor of technology... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

March 27, 2019

How Toyota Kata can transform your lean deployment

The Toyota Way was defined in an internal 2001 Toyota document as continuous improvement and respect for people. People are the... - Read More

Industry 4.0

March 19, 2019

Voice opportunities beyond the smart speaker

There is a shift taking place today in how humans interact with technology that will be as transformative as the... - Read More

Industry 4.0

March 13, 2019

Your guide to piloting machine learning

In today’s video in the Machine Learning myth buster series, I’m covering the following myths: Machine Learning only makes sense... - Read More

Industry 4.0

March 05, 2019

How to scale intra-factory data connections in your smart factory

What are the challenges when implementing Industry 4.0? It’s one of the most common questions I get asked by the... - Read More

Industry 4.0

February 25, 2019

Five key steps to get a real ROI in your digital transformation

During November, I traveled far and wide, attending some of the leading manufacturing events across Europe, including the Manufacturing Leaders’... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

February 11, 2019

Teaching a Proud Japanese Company New Tricks of Lean

Teaching a Proud Japanese Company New Tricks of Lean: Going Deep before Going Wide Jeffrey Liker and Tony McNaughton (Note: ... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

February 05, 2019

Want to think like Amazon? Start from the receipt

What’s in a receipt? Hardly seems like a topic of competitive advantage, operational excellence, customer delight, or innovation. Digital transformation... - Read More

predictive innovation in product development

Industry 4.0

January 29, 2019

How to develop billion-dollar product opportunities

Internet of Things and Big Data have all changed manufacturing and marketing functions. In manufacturing, we talk a lot about... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

January 22, 2019

Optimise your design thinking process with LEGO SERIOUS PLAY

By Robert Rasmussen, LEGO SERIOUS PLAY EXPERT and former Head of R&D at LEGO Co-author Carlo Spellucci. Lego Serious Play... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

January 16, 2019

How to use Kata to develop scientific thinking

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) has long been recognised as a foundation of any successful improvement process. Nevertheless, most lean efforts tend to... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

January 08, 2019

Alibaba’s 100% growth rate to world dominance

The Leadership Network sat down with Xuan Jin, Lead Solutions Architect at Alibaba Cloud, to discuss Alibaba’s ambitions to conquer... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

December 20, 2018

The most interesting retail experiment that no-one is talking about

The LEGO Dead Ocean Strategy Near my home in Philadelphia, LEGO just opened its tenth North American LEGOLand Discovery Center.... - Read More

solution to an inconsistent Lean approach

Enterprise Excellence

December 11, 2018

Virtual reality as a solution to an inconsistent Lean approach

In the final video of the series, Peter Hines, an award-winning Lean expert, goes over the importance of virtual reality... - Read More

Industry 4.0

December 03, 2018

How to prepare your dataset for machine learning?

In the latest video, Tim Eschert, machine learning expert, goes over the following two myths on what it takes to... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

November 26, 2018

Is OEE a Useful Key Performance Indicator?

Total Productive Maintenance (TPS) has become the industry standard for maintaining equipment in the best possible shape, increasingly important as... - Read More

Industry 4.0

November 22, 2018

Benchmark your Industry 4.0 Transformation against Siemens

London, United Kingdom – 14 Nov. 2018 – Today, The Leadership Network has announced its partnership with Siemens, the largest... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 19, 2018

Building Your Digital Strategy – The Amazon Way

An Overview of The Amazon Way on IoT How is digital disruption impacting your industry? What do the next 10... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 12, 2018

An Open Letter to Gibson’s New CEO

Fifty years ago, when Eric Clapton played lead guitar on the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” he played a... - Read More

Industry 4.0

November 05, 2018

What’s the difference between Six Sigma, Data Analytics and Machine Learning?

Tim Eschert’s new myth buster series on Machine Learning addresses the differences between Six Sigma, Big Data and Machine Learning... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

October 30, 2018

Alibaba helps executives make their digital transformation happen

London, United Kingdom – 22 October 2018 – Today, The Leadership Network has announced its partnership with Alibaba Cloud, the... - Read More

Industry 4.0

October 23, 2018

Utilising the benefits of 3D printing

A radical shift in manufacturing In 2012, the Economist brought a special report, hailing 3D printing as the steam-engine of... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 16, 2018

The power of exceptional greens

Abel Martínez is a Global Operational Excellence Director at JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts). Abel has developed his career in companies... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 10, 2018

How to lead a global lean transformation and make it stick

Leading a global lean transformation programme is not easy. In fact, 90% of lean transformations fail. For those seeking operational... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

October 03, 2018

Death on the High Street? How e-commerce and social media are changing the way w...

Western society is on the verge of a revolution in the way we shop. The death of bricks and mortar... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

September 24, 2018

How Nestlé executives drive Innovation and Continuous Improvement

Nestlé’s Product Technology Centre (PTC) in York is at the forefront of Confectionery Research and Development, translating scientific discoveries into... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

September 19, 2018

The Rise and Role of the Chief Digital Officer

To have or have not? Do companies really need to appoint a CDO – a Chief Digital Officer – to... - Read More

emotional stages of organizational change

Enterprise Excellence

September 12, 2018

Why change is like grieving – and grieving is like change.

Think about it. The process we call grieving is one of the most intense emotional states – and most profound... - Read More

Industry 4.0

September 05, 2018

Your framework for a successful Industry 4.0 business model

If you live in Germany, you must have seen electric DHL delivery car, produced by Street Scooter, subsidiary of DHL.... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

August 23, 2018

Top 5 Lean culture implementation challenges addressed

Watch Peter Hines address top challenges senior executives struggle with on their journey to Lean culture implementation: Q1: What... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

August 17, 2018

Change – the Final Frontier (with apologies to Star Trek)

I have had the privilege of working at some exceptional companies – companies that aspired to be the best, and... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

August 09, 2018

Exclusive insights on the Toyota Way from Jeff Liker

You have authored or co-authored over 85 articles and book chapters and 15 books on Lean and The Toyota Way.... - Read More

How to reduce cost with machine learning

Industry 4.0

August 01, 2018

How to reduce cost with machine learning: case study

Industrial Manufacturing Falling Behind When we look at the buzzwords of the Industry 4.0 world, we tend to think of... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

July 24, 2018

So what exactly is Lean in Lean Product Development?

A couple of stories… When I was a very young lad, I worked in product development at a very large... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

July 16, 2018

How to catalyse radical innovation and redefine the rules of the game

I define radical innovation as a serendipitous result of many self-organizing, interdependent employees learning from profuse experiments to produce 10x... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

July 10, 2018

Your guide to the IoT-enabled Outcome-Based Business Models

I’ve worked in the project-management business essentially my entire career, leading teams of people to accomplish focused, specific objectives driven... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

July 03, 2018

How to implement Lean in five steps

The term Lean Production was first used in 1990 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Research Director James P. Womack... - Read More

Nokia manufacturing Factory of the Future

Industry 4.0

June 28, 2018

Nokia – Still Connecting People

Today, it’s hard to imagine a world without Internet connectivity. We stand at the edge of a new era with... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

June 26, 2018

What is the science in Lean?

Co-authored by Mike Rother - an American researcher who introduced the widespread business practices of Value Stream Mapping and Toyota... - Read More

Industry 4.0

June 18, 2018

Platforms for the industrial IoT: choosing the operating system of your digital ...

The platform economy is a central topic today in all economic sectors - but above all for the Digital Factory... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

June 12, 2018

The secret problem solving weapon of Lean organizations and why it is unbelievab...

Engineers are bred to solve problems. From the first day of school, it is part of the professional identity of... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

June 06, 2018

Former Amazon Executive on How to Lead Your IoT Strategy

Lack of expertise to lead digitisation initiatives, employee pushback and no overarching strategy for digitisation are just some of the... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

June 01, 2018

Lessons from LEGO: What do you do when your current growth phase ends?

On March 6, LEGO announced its results for 2017. Sales declined by 8% and profits dropped by 18%. These results... - Read More

Industry 4.0

May 29, 2018

How to succeed at digital transformation

How to Succeed at Digital Transformation: Lessons from Chief Information Officer of GE Aviation David Burns David Burns is an... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

May 22, 2018

Why worry about Lean if we can innovate like Tesla?

I am a huge Elon Musk fan. Coolest engineer ever. Honestly, he makes Tony Stark of “Iron Man” look like... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

May 17, 2018

We Are All In The Supply Chain Business

The ongoing transformation of our industrial supply chain is hardly the first of its kind. What’s different about today’s modernization... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

May 14, 2018

How to Implement Data-Driven Supply Chain and Increase Your Revenue: Case Study ...

In a recent study from Accenture, 97 percent of the senior executives surveyed see great value in creating a data-centric... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

May 08, 2018

Lessons from Toyota: How to do a Gemba Walk and Why You Need To

The Purpose of Gemba Walks I recall interviewing executives in a conference room at Toyota’s proving grounds in Arizona when... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

April 30, 2018

10 Rules Behind Amazon’s Success You Can Use on Your Digitisation Journey

Since publishing my book The Amazon Way in June 2014, I’ve collaborated with hundreds of teams and leaders, applying lessons... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

April 27, 2018

Inside Alibaba - Jack Ma's Digital Innovation Factory

Artificial intelligence. Augmented reality. Facial recognition. Connected “internet” vehicles. Global virtual marketplaces. App-based digital payment systems. Pharmaceutical e-commerce. Humanoid robots.... - Read More

Two most fundamental principles of Lean Product Development are Reduction of Waste, and the Deming Circle.

Enterprise Excellence

April 24, 2018

Taking the first step: getting started on your Lean Product Development journey

It’s intimidating. The time never seems to be right. There is always a crisis or other priorities by management, or... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

April 17, 2018

How to Win in the Innovation Economy

Rowan Gibson, described by Forbes as ‘one of the most recognized thought leaders in business innovation’, and co-founder of www.innovationexcellence.com,... - Read More

Industry 4.0

April 13, 2018

Is your business model Industry 4.0-ready?

Industry 4.0 is often discussed from a technological perspective of machine learning, algorithms, smart sensors, and connected assets. But the... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

April 12, 2018

How to Implement Lean as a Culture and Workflow

Jeffrey shares his two decades worth of insights, captured in his international bestseller ‘The Toyota Way’ and his more recent... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 17, 2016

Innovation The Dyson Way

Sir James Dyson is lauded as one of the greatest innovators of our time, but how was this enterprising entrepreneur... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

November 07, 2016

5 Sustainable Innovation Practices that Saved LEGO

Every second, seven boxes of LEGO are sold. For every person in the world, there are 62 LEGO bricks. What’s... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

November 03, 2016

Deconstructing Toyota's success

Since its founding in 1937, Toyota has challenged the status quo to influence the future of mobility and enrich lives... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 31, 2016

How Nike Used Lean to Solve its Sweatshop Problem

Businesses typically adopt Lean to streamline production and improve efficiency, but recent research from MIT Sloan professor Greg Distelhorst suggests... - Read More

Industry 4.0

October 26, 2016

Natural Selection: The Key to Festo’s Brand-Driven Innovation

Festo is a globally operating, independent family enterprise that supplies pneumatic and electrical automation technology, but you may already know... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

October 19, 2016

Marmitegate and Exploding Phones: What’s Going on in the World of Supply Chain...

Disagreements between suppliers and retailers are relatively common, but not one that cuts off the supply of much-loved brands to... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

October 17, 2016

We Need A New Supply Chain Management Definition

Delivering the right product, at the right place, at the right time. This age-old challenge for supply chain managers is... - Read More

Industry 4.0

October 05, 2016

How Disney Creates Digital Magic with Big Data

For over 90 years, Disney has prided itself on producing magical guest experiences that few can match. But in the... - Read More

Industry 4.0

September 20, 2016

Lean and Big Data: How Manufacturing Is Getting Even Leaner

According to McKinsey & Co., big data could be worth tens of billions of dollars for Lean manufacturers in the automotive,... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

September 05, 2016

Five Lean Myths and the Reality of Thinking Lean

You can only imagine how exciting it was for industrial engineers and researchers when they were conducting research to understand the... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 19, 2015

Is Innovation achieved through Kaizen?

The Japanese term Kaizen made popular by Toyota is a philosophy that assumes every aspect of life can and deserves... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

October 15, 2015

3 Reasons Why Gemba Walks Drive Innovation

The Japanese word Gemba, made popular by Toyota and used throughout the manufacturing industries, translates to English as ‘The Real Place’.... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

October 08, 2015

The Substitutes Threat

Try to picture this scenario. A traffic technology company invests in a technology, where intelligent sensors embedded under a layer... - Read More

Enterprise Excellence

October 08, 2015

How to sustain Lean systems in your business

The answer is not as esoteric and arcane as you might imagine. It is actually quite simple. Leadership is the... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 31, 2015

Addition By Subtraction Works

Before you can add, you must subtract. Canada's parliament has just enacted that it believes may be the world's first... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 31, 2015

The Importance of Recognition

Of all the tools and tricks in the leaders' tool bag, none is quite as powerful as the importance of... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 31, 2015

Experiment to Get Support for Your Innovative Ideas

Trying to do things differently or to do different things within an organization is hard. Being an innovator is not... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 25, 2015

How to Keep Coaching Simple

If coaching is to succeed, it must be simple and specific. That's why I am a big believer in flash... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 21, 2015

Optionality as a disruption strategy

Executives responsible for responding to disruption need to learn a new language. I say this because in a recent project... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 21, 2015

Do you Know Your Disruption From Your Innovation?

If you want a rundown on what the experts think of innovation then read the summer edition of Foreign Affairs.... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 21, 2015

Don't Be Afraid of Upsetting People - A Negative Reaction is Better than no Reac...

South Park is a highly successful cartoon sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central TV... - Read More

Supply Chain 4.0

August 20, 2015

From Supply Chain to Value Networks

Introduction Supply Chain Management has become a must in most multinationals; this was not the case twenty years ago when... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

August 20, 2015

Ascending the Mount Everest of Leadership on a Daily Basis

Since the time of early humans, the influence exerted by leaders like kings, queens, military generals, and even dictators on... - Read More

Innovation Excellence

July 31, 2015

The Innovation Phrases We Hate the Most

The term itself, innovation - can alienate many people, but even within the professional innovation community we have lots of... - Read More